Using Synthetic Carbohydrates as Biological Targeting and Delivery Agents

Carbohydrate-protein interactions are ubiquitous in mammalian cell systems, are critical to cellular communication, and as a result may be exploited for effective delivery of therapeutic payloads to specific cell types. These interactions remain largely unexploited by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries primarily due to the “myth” that access to the requisite carbohydrate entities are too technically challenging to be practical. This webinar will focus on two areas with the goal of demonstrating that carbohydrates are indeed accessible and can be practical alternatives or adjuncts to more traditional targeting approaches:

• First, a short survey of potentially exploitable carbohydrate-protein interactions will be provided. The focus will be on how endocytic receptors and their known carbohydrate ligands have been leveraged to deliver different payloads, such as nucleic acid drug candidates and therapeutic proteins, to certain cell types.
• Second, case studies exhibiting the practical large-scale synthesis of complex oligosaccharides will be presented and discussed.

With the emergence of many different classes of biotherapeutics, including nucleic acids, antibodies and replacement enzymes, the use of carbohydrates as targeting and delivery agents will become an essential approach to overcoming the technical challenges that hamper realization of the full potential of these therapeutics.

Speaker

Dr. Stewart Campbell, Head of Business Development & Product Management, Carbohydrates, CordenPharma Switzerland / Woburn

Dr. Campbell is an organic chemist with expertise in carbohydrate chemistry, including large-scale production of oligosaccharides and their conjugates. He has spent the past three decades at the interface of carbohydrate chemistry and glycobiology, largely providing carbohydrate chemistry solutions to biological problems. After PhD studies at Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada) and post- doctoral studies with Prof. B. Fraser-Reid at Duke University, Dr. Campbell has worked in the Pharmaceutical industry for more than 22 years. In addition to playing a key role in delivering four compounds from discovery into clinical development, he has more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications, is a co-inventor on 13 issued patents, has written four book chapters and given numerous invited lectures and presentations. Currently he is Head of Operations at CordenPharma’s carbohydrate expertise center in Woburn, MA.

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